Sound Card for Mac G5

[Steve Shovlar]

OK I am just about to pick up some good Studio monitors, Mackie HR 824's.

I am working on a G5, and it has the bog standard sound card. So what should I replace it with?

Can anyone recommend a good soundcard for the G5 so that I can output to the Mackies?

Or is the standard sound card good enough? ( which I really doubt!)

Cheers

[kidtexas]

I rather like my Metric Halo ULN-2. Very nice, but might be more than you want to spend. MOTU makes a smaller box (Ultralight?) that looks nice. If you want to go cheaper than that, make sure you get something with a volume knob for the output. The Presonus Firebox is small and cheap - don't know how good it is. At that level, there are a ton units out there (around $200), like M-Audio, etc.)

Be warned, I've heard the Mackie's can get a little flabby on the low end.

[Steve Shovlar]

So what other monitor speakers are available which are excellent in the same price bracket?

[kidtexas]

I don't know. I was just passing on the some info. I would imagine all speakers in this price range and in price ranges that mere mortals can afford will misrepresent various parts of the spectrum. We just need to be aware where a set of monitors might have problems.

Most smaller monitors have problems with the low end. The Mackies sound like great ones for the price, but have their problems like all speakers do. For the right person and the right room, they are probably perfect. Just make sure you have the right room and your the right person (this goes for any set of monitors). You might also like the smaller Mackies more in your space.

I ended up with a small set of PMC's and a hafler amp. My PMC's don't get flabby on the low end; they have a hard time getting real low at all.

Here's the speakers I was looking at recently. Don't know if it is the best selection, but it is the list I arbitrarily ended up with.
Active:
- KRK V6's
- Mackies
- Genelec 8000 series
- Dynaudio BM5's & BM6
Passive:
- PMC DB1's & TB2's
Active with Sub:
- Blue Sky System 1 and ProDesk

To be honest, I was looking for small monitors that could be used for music as well. If I was just looking for video, I think I might have ended up with one of the blue sky speakers (the system 1 is about ~$1.5k and the Prodesk is about $900). They come with a sub and are active and you can upgrade in the future to 5.1. I almost ended up with a set of the system 1's but I thought the smaller size of the PMC's would benefit me in my current environment. Actually, they make an even smaller system (mediadesk) that has gotten decent reviews.

PMC I think is a British company so you might be able to get a better price on them than I could here in the US. I ended up with the DB1's, but the TB2's are what I would have liked to have. Get a pair of them and a Hafler P3000. I ended up with a Hafler P1500 (fine because the DB1's are smaller) for $150 and a the speakers for about $750. I think the TB2's are about $1000 and a P3000 shouldn't cost more than $200-250. This fits in the same budget as $1200 for the Mackies.

The Dynaudio BM6A's also sound like great speakers. $1500.

But, I think the Bluesky monitors are pretty nice. Amps, sub, 5.1 upgradability. The nice thing about them is that they are designed to be used with the sub, so the monitors themselves have a design that doesn't demand too much out of them in terms of low frequencies. I think some speakers get themselves into trouble because they try to produce thundering bass out of a woofer and enclosure that really doesn't support it. The Bluesky monitors are sealed, which makes for a nice smooth low end which doesn't go as low or as loud as a ported system, but the sub picks up the slack. The PMC's use a transmission line port, which is a pretty sophisticated system. A lot of other speakers use a simple port, which can get boomy around some frequencies. I think the Mackies use a passive radiator, which does boost low freq output and avoids some of the problems of a simple ported enclosure, but can give you low end problems depending on the placement (true for all speakers to some extent) and the way you hear low end.

However, they always say you should try out monitors in your studio before you decide. You can do a lot of reading about monitors over on gearslutz.com. Be careful though, those guys talk about getting a pair of $10,000 monitors like I talk about buying a pair of underwear. There are a ton of great monitors in the $1000-$1500 range, check them out.

[tigeba]

The Mackies are fine, don't worry about the low end

If you are worried you can always cough up another 1k for Genelecs

[RayFrisby]

Hi Steve ! I've just ordered a pair of Tannoy Reveal 6D's, have read very good things about them. You can pick up a pair of them for aout 360 Stg from Dolphin Music. XLR and digital imputs, for the price they look sweet.

[Steve Shovlar]

Thanks for all the advice.

As for a sound card, is a M-Audio Audiophile 192 good enough for editing with FCP on a G5?

[wabbit]

Ditto on Tigba. Mackies are fine, industry standard really. Genelecs are even sweeter but cost a few bucks more. Most won't hear any difference. I started out on Genelecs but all our other DAW's and NLE were using Mackie so I ended up selling the Genelecs to stay consistent.

As for a sound card, is a M-Audio Audiophile 192 good enough for editing with FCP on a G5?

Editing on FCP? For video editing anything will do.

Cheers

[kidtexas]

There you go then -- the Mackies are fine. I guess approaching sound from a mixing background makes me a little more concerned when looking for a pair of monitors. Despite what others say, if you have the time, does it *hurt* to check out a couple of sets of monitors and pick which one you like? Then again $1500 is still big bucks to me...

What does the M-Audio do for you that the builtin sound doesn't? I figured you'd want a physical volume knob at least. It does have balanced outputs, but that isn't everything, and you could always save $200, try your monitors without the M-audio, and if it doesn't work out, then just go buy it.

If you just want a system that you can hear the source audio so you can edit the video appropriately, you really don't need much at all -- why even buy the Mackies when you could probably get any pair of $500 monitors and save a lot of cash? If you plan on doing more with it, basically any audio task that you'd have to leave FCP for (mixing, composing, creating sound effects, etc.), I would think you'd want to get a system that meets you needs, NOT THAT THE MACKIES WOULDN'T MEET YOUR NEEDS. But, with a little bit of research, you could find out exactly what YOU like best, not what WE like best.

I'm really not trying to sound like an ass here, but $1500 is a lot to spend for me. I'd still get the Dynaudio BM6a's (almost the same price) or the BlueSky's over the Mackies.

I will stop now before making more of a fool of myself. Good luck and I'm sure you'll love whatever you end up with!